


I'll Be Your Shelter.

by MissToastie



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Charlynch - Freeform, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 16:39:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15755661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissToastie/pseuds/MissToastie
Summary: You can't control what triggers you, and Charlotte has learnt that the hard way.





	I'll Be Your Shelter.

**Author's Note:**

> Brief speaking of trauma. Please don't read if it's something that could potentially trigger you, look out for yourself first, fam. 
> 
> Dream is in italics.

Five nights had slowly dragged by since Summer Slam, the first night, Charlotte barely slept a wink. A last minute decision to go back to Nattie's hotel to spend some time with her and a few of the other RAW and Smackdown women was possibly not the best decision when work had to be done the following night, but Nattie needed her girls, and when both brands are in the same area at the same time, well, it's cruel to have a full on schedule the next day. Didn't anyone understand it was a time for everybody catch up?

Becky hadn't slept too well that night either, a lot of tossing and turning, deep sighing, but she still managed some sleep while Charlotte lay right next to staring into the darkness. She had briefly been on her phone but majority of social media weren't being too kind to her at the moment.

Deservingly so, but many blurred the lines between who Charlotte was as a character and who she was as a real human being. The joys of being in the entertainment world, she guessed.

But after the house show the following night after Summer Slam, she managed a few hours, but by night three, that's when the nightmares slowly crept in. The ones she prayed not to visit, the ones she always feared most.

It was hard coming from a place of abusive relationships; whether that be physically or mentally abusive - emotionally, too.

Everyone says karma is a bitch, Charlotte guessed those people weren't unlucky enough to experience trauma; because trauma, trauma was one hell of a bitch. The biggest bitch of them all.

The mind doesn't forget, not completely, anyway. No matter how much you pray, no matter how much therapy you do to get yourself through this. And sure, there's ways to get through the moments of thinking of the traumatic experiences; reminding yourself of the present, reminding youself you are no longer in that situation, reminding yourself you have no control of the past but right now, right now you have what it takes to get by, to pick yourself up and go on. But there's always going to be that terrifying moment where you find yourself triggered.

Perhaps an anniversary date, a certain town, a colour, an object, a smell...

The moment the person you love with all of your everything hits you for the first time in anger.

And deep down, not even that deep down, Charlotte knows that Becky would never lay her hands on her in the domestic violence sense, that this was Ring!Becky feuding with Ring!Charlotte, not them as best friends, not them as lovers, it was scripted.

But sometimes that doesn't mean much when your mind reacts to a trigger.

The fact that this was a scripted moment, that Charlotte had agreed to, it didn't matter. Her mind found the moment triggering, just like Becky had worried it would. Charlotte cursed herself thinking back to how sweet but silly she thought Becky was being when she brought that up in private after their talk with creative. But as per usual, Becky was right; she was fucking painfully right.

And why wouldn't she be? Nobody in this world knew Charlotte like Becky did. Nobody took the time to know her the way she did. Nobody saw the words she longed to scream but silently hid away, nobody knew exactly why Charlotte was so guarded yet so unbelievably fragile, nobody knew why certain songs meant the entite world to Charlotte, nobody knew the therapy she went through, all the gym sessions, all the comfort food, all the silly tv shows she watched, nobody knew Charlotte like Becky did, and that's how they fell in love. They simply got each other. They understood one another. They loved one another.

And because Charlotte didn't listen to her girlfriend, she found herself living in a mindframe where she didn't want to be -

Five nights after Summer Slam, in a hotel room in some random city in a new state, Charlotte was laying next to her sleeping girlfriend, in a ball of sweat, whimpering in her sleep.

  
"No! Don't!" She whimpered softly, pushing her hand into the dark room, swatting away the air around her.

_This nightmare was different tonight. It wasn't him...it wasn't the other him either...this time it was Becky, and Becky had her pinned between the front door she tried to desperately escape from. It was Becky hitting her. Not Ring!Becky, Becky Becky, her Becky._

"Please stop." She cried loudly into the hotel room.

Becky sharply sat up, frowning as she looked around, trying to find her bearings.

_Becky had her wedged between the fridge and wall now, the punches coming hard and fierce. The yelling was so loud; why was she doing this?_

"Love?" Becky's voice was hoarse. She reached for the light by her bedside and switched it on, squinting as the room lit up. She turned her head and looked at her beautiful girlfriend, full of sweat and tears, sobbing as she was curled in a ball. “Charlie?” Becky spoke a little louder as Charlotte’s eyes remained closed.

_Her fingertips dug into her neck and Charlotte struggled to breathe as she listened to Becky repeatedly telling her how worthless she was, how ugly she was, how undeserving of the title she was, how she was tired of being the insignificant side kick._

“Baby girl, cmon now, wake up.” Becky reached over and gently removed her girlfriend hair that stuck to her face. She felt her heart break as Charlotte flinched her sleep. “It’s alright love, it's just me, Charlie, it's Becky." She soothingly spoke to her, not wanting to forcefully touch her; not wanting to scare her more she clearly already was. "Don't let the bastards win love, wake up for me.”

Charlotte whimpered loudly in her sleep.

God trauma was a fucking bitch.

“My sweet girl,” Becky spoke a little louder, yet in the most gentle of voices. “It’s Becks.”

“Becky?” Charlotte croaked as she slowly opened her eyes. "Oh god please don't hurt me." She sat up and almost fell off the hotel bed - she sobbed.

"Wha?" Becky stared at the terrified blonde. Her face dropped and she felt sadder than she had moments ago. "I...I would never hurt you my sweet girl." She felt her eyes well with tears. She watched as Charlotte felt for her neck and look around at her surroundings. Her tears fell when she realised what had happened. "You dreamt I was hurting you."

"I...I I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Charlotte placed her trembling hands over her face. "oh god I'm so sorry, baby."

"C'mere," Becky opened her arms. "Come put that pretty head on these boulder shoulders." She watched as Charlotte crawled toward her and collapsed in her arms, crying in her chest. "I built them just to help me protect my number one girl, you know that?" She rubbed her hand soothingly up and down Charlotte's back. "God, never in a million years would I hurt you baby, no matter what ever happens. I would never ever lay my fist to your body unless it was in the ring." She listened to her girl sniffle. "I'd never hurt you Charlotte Flair, I'd walk the world backwards if it meant keeping you safe."

"I know..." Charlotte nodded. "I know that, it's just that..."

"You were triggered." Becky finished Charlotte's sentence. She knew her girl. She knew all her likes and dislike, she knew her fears and strengths, she knew what triggered her. She knew that this would. Granted she didn't know that this time the nightmare would be about Becky herself beating Charlotte black and blue. It was always them she dreamt about. "Can you look at me, love?"

A few moments passed before teary blue eyes met Becky's.

"You can't control what your mind conjures up. You can't always control your triggered moments. You don't have control of the nightmares and what exactly happens in them." She swallowed, but didn't break her eye contact. "But I swear to god, I will never lay a hand on you. I'll tell you a million times. I will never do anything to you that you don't want me to."

Charlotte nodded and wiped her eyes. She knew that. She damn well knew that and she fucking hated her mind for going there.

But you can’t control the triggers; you can’t control the nightmares.

“I’d even stop telling puns for you.” Becky smirked.

“I wouldn’t change you in a single way, Becks.” Fresh tears threatened to fall down Charlotte’s flushed face. “You’re so perfect and you deserve so much good in your life and it hurts me that you don’t get it.”

“Hey now, hey, I’ve got so much good in my life, love.” Becky reached down and grabbed Charlotte’s hand and placed a gentle kiss to the back of her hand. “I have great friends and family, I’m working in my dream job, loyal fans, great music, quinoa,” She smirked. “And most importantly I’ve got the most beautiful girl in the entire universe on my arm.”

“You deserve the title.”

“I do.” Becky wasn’t going to lie. She fucking deserved that title. She sent a silent prayer to the dumbass creative writers at WWE; god knows they damn well needed it. “And I’ll get it. And it’ll be an honor to win it from you, my girl.”

“It’ll work out fine.” Charlotte wiped her face.

“All we need is a little patience.” She watched as Charlotte nodded. That went right over her head. “Said sugar...make it slow...and we’ll come together fine.”

Charlotte looked at Becky and laughed.

"All we need is just a little patience." They said in unison.

"You always know what to say." Charlotte smiled and stroked Beckys hand in hers.

"Or at least what songs to quote." Becky loved that song before she met Charlotte, but God did she love it even more and more every time she listened to it, and she loved it the most when she listened to her girlfriend sing along, getting every single lyric correct, for a change. She knew what that song meant to Charlotte. She found herself playing it any time she knew her girl needed a pick up. God, she'd sing it to her in front of the entire universe, just to make her smile; even though she couldn't sing, she'd do it for Charlotte - because that smile, that boost of confidence, that happy energy she gets from hearing that song, it's worth more than anything in the world.

"I'm gonna love on you even more now we are fighting it out in the ring." Becky shared her thoughts. "And I am going to remind you every single day how worthy of love you are and that I would never hurt you."

Holding Charlotte close to her chest, she lay against the bed head, stroking her hand through Charlotte’s hair as her girlfriend snuggled closer. She vowed to herself that no person alive would hurt her girlfriend outside of a wrestling ring, and god fucking help anyone who tried. 

**Author's Note:**

> Catch my trashy fangirl self -
> 
> Tumblr - Bexflair  
> Twitter - MissToastie


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